R K Misra
On a day when the result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic gamble in Maharashtra and Haryana is the stuff of screaming headlines,it is his ‘hostile takeover’ and ‘acquisitions’ imagery , played with panache on the Indian political chessboard, that needs dissemination.Moreso because it has reaped him splendid results in election after election including the ones just concluded.
And artful imagery it was at work.Inviting comparisons with late Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi in conjuring up a cause. Whether it was the abolition of princely privy purses,bank nationalization or the portrayal of her own party veterans of the sixties-Morarji Desai,Atulya Ghosh,Sanjiva Reddy then known as the syndicate-as archaic gasbags,she successfully portrayed them as hindering progressive ‘garibi hatao’ programmes thus ensuring a mandate for herself.
Modi has done one better.He has not only carried forward the imagery, but even fleshed out the phenomenon.After assuming power for the first time in an earthquake battered Gujarat in 2001,Modi consolidated his hold through a landslide victory in the State Assembly elections that followed the Godhra train carnage and communal riots thereafter.
Battling the worldwide uproar over the communal cleaving,the Gujarat Chief Minister resorted to a diversionary measure that sought to take the fight straight into the rival camp.He aggressively targeted the Congress led UPA Government at the Centre,holding it responsible for all the ills plaguing his Government ‘‘It is an attack on five crore Gujaratis(their asmita)’’, he thundered while railing at the CBI as the Congress Bureau of Investigations.The Chief Minister is now the Prime Minister but not a word is heard now, though the CBI continues almost in the same vein with West Bengal head honcho, Mamata Banerjee in it’s cross-hairs besides numerous others,all of opposition stock.
A strong votary of combative politics,the hindu hriday samrat provided first glimpses of his national ambitions in September 2011 when he went on a three day ‘sadbhavana”fast for communal harmony .While the professed purpose was to expose Gujarat’s detractors,his absence on the initial days of the party national executive identified veteran L.K.Advani and party president Nitin Gadkari as the targets of his ire.One has since been shelf-ed and the other sits docilely in his Cabinet.
Projecting the image of a forward thinking,development oriented, aggressive political leader with leadership qualities,Modi caught the imagination of a country sick of multi-party rule and singlehandedly propelled the BJP to a majority in the 2014 general elections.With not a care in the world,Modi has been nonchalantly indulging in ‘hostile’ image takeovers and acquisitions.When still the Gujarat Chief Minister, he had ‘wrenched’ the iconic Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel from the Congress.Besides railing on a daily basis on how the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty had denied the ‘Gujarati’ sardar his due,Modi promptly announced a statue twice the size of the Statue of Liberty for the Sardar in his State .No sooner did he become the party’s Prime Ministerial candidate,that this project was turned into an elaborate national election exercise though hardly anything is heard about it these days.
Thereafter it was the turn of Gandhian imagery, aligned with the ‘Clean India ‘ drive and launched big time on October 2, the birth anniversary of the Mahatma.What was an article of faith with the father of the nation once,is now wholly appropriated by Prime Minister Modi,nationwide.It carries his indelible stamp now though not Gandhi’s other guiding principles.
India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi have also been brought into the ambit of Modi’s image appropriation.The two persons he railed against,even had their names removed from the two UPA Government schemes-JNURM and Indira Awas Yojna-were picked upon by Modi at a Haryana election rally to announce a cleanliness drive beginning from the 125th birthday of Nehru on Nov 14 to November 19, the birthday of Mrs Gandhi.Genuine or campaign stunt,the fact is that Modi appropriates with ease and discards at leisure.The Maharashtra Assembly elections also saw him similarly bask in the reflected glory of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj leaving the BJP’s one time ally, shiv Sena chaffing and provoking a bitter war of words.
Though Modi has spent a lifetime baiting the Nehru-Gandhi family,his move to observe Nehru’s 125th birth anniversary was more tactical than anything else.The Congress has made it known that it intends to celebrate the event in a big way so the announcement was made as much to appropriate as to deflect.While merely linking the Nehru celebration with the cleanliness drive,Modi has already announced grand plans to celebrate the 150the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
In hindsight,it almost seems that the Prime Minister is locked in a game of strip poker with the Congress.One by one,he is peeling off both ,their greats and governments .Old birds may be hard to pluck,but when the fox teaches,count your geese!EOM
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